FOR IT IS WRITTEN...

 

Those four words are generally a preamble to a statement claiming moral superiority based on some religious scripture.  It would be the speaker's claim that all arguments to the contrary are moot because their interpretation of some religious text makes their point for them.  Logic has no place in the discussion if it contradicts whatever they claim, “is written.”

One reference, Wikipedia, estimates that there are currently 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, faith groups, etc., in existence.  There have been thousands of religious variations over the course of humankind.  These religions govern ethics, morality, and lifestyle based on ideas about the cosmos and human nature.  Humans are drawn to religion to provide structure in their lives and to perhaps explain those things about their own existence they don’t understand.

On the current world stage, we have an ongoing war between at least two religious ideologies in Gaza and its surrounds.  We have an American political candidate with questionable moral standards selling Bibles and promoting a religious theory that the government should control the human reproductive process.

Many of these established religions have a formalized written rulebook.  Christians have their Bible, Islam has the Quran and Hadith, and Jews have the Talmud and Torah.  The origins of these religions go back thousands of years.  Judaism is over 3,500 years old, Christianity is over 2,000 years old, and Islam for Muslims goes back over 1,400 years.

I only mention these three religions now as they are part of the current strife in the news.  As has been the case for millennia, battles are being fought using the written word of their religious beliefs as justification.  I will ignore the underlying causality that is the real motivation in much of this chaos, the human lust for power, money, and control of others.

If we look back historically at the text that is the foundation of these religions, we find common themes.  While most claim some divine inspiration as the source for the material in their respective texts, all were written by men.  Many of these texts describe events and provide explanations.  They provide mandates and structure for “keeping the faith,” laws if you will.

While I won’t get into burning bushes, talking clouds, dream visions, visiting spirits, etc., that many of the writers of scripture claim as inspiration, I just know that many of these religious stories and themes are older than the existing “written word.”  Long before much of this was written down for inclusion in these religious guidebooks, the same or similar stories were being told.

Many of us know the first five books of the Hebrew Bible are the Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian tradition.  This original text was the legal code of the time and was used as the mediator of law.  Central authorship is rather vague but is largely attributed to Moses.  It was written down in something called the Babylonian Talmud around 200-500 CE (Christian Era aka AD).  The origins are even older and date to around 600 BCE from a variety of unconnected materials.  I don’t mention this as a lesson in religious doctrine but only to point out the length of time (800 years ??) of its development and the opportunity for change and varied interpretations of events.

This brings me to the Epic of Gilgamesh.  If you know of this collection of Sumerian poems from ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), you are certainly better read than am I.  I came across this reference while researching the previous paragraph.  My religious education amounts to but five years of Catholic school and memorizing Latin I didn’t understand.

It seems that this Epic of Gilgamesh was unknown in modern times until its discovery in the 1850s when 15,000 fragments of Assyrian cuneiform tables were found in an ancient library.  These “texts” date to 700 BCE and mention legends associated with an extended period around 2600 BCE.

Now that we have some context of time for this Gilgamesh legend, I will mention just one of the stories to see if it sounds familiar.  It is of the Great Flood sent by the deities to destroy civilization in a cleansing of humanity for a “rebirth.”  This same myth occurs in many cultures including Hinduism, Greek mythology, the Genesis flood narrative with Noah, Mesopotamian flood stories, and the Cheyenne flood story.  It seems that everyone enjoys a good flood yarn.

In the Gilgamesh version of the flood, the highest god Enlil, decides to destroy the world because humans have become too noisy.  The god Ea, who created humans out of clay and divine blood, secretly warns the hero Utnapishtim of the impending flood and gives him detailed instructions for building a boat so that life may survive. 

In Hindu mythology, the great flood also involves a hero, Manu, who is told to build a giant boat.  In an Iranian religion, the same story is told when the god Ahriman tries to destroy the world with a drought which is ended when another god, Mithra, shoots an arrow into a rock causing a flood and only one man survives in an ark with his cattle.  The North American Cheyenne also has a flood myth involving the Missouri River Valley.

It seems that, while there are variations in the details of the characters, these flood myths were stories told and retold by a variety of cultures over thousands of years.  The fact that it is also in the sacred scriptures of modern religions provides some foundation for skepticism for the literal interpretations of these “good books.”

None of this is to say that religions are based wholly on “fake news” and don’t provide some structure for good, but to use the written words found in a sacred text as the end-all for further deliberation or discussion is wholly without merit.  Religions may be the foundation for moral guidance but should never be used to dictate our actions when they countermand common sense.  Remember this when anyone again uses, “It is written…” as some preemptive argument.  Religion has its place in society but one person’s religion and their interpretation of its doctrine should never be used as a mandate for governance.